pan and tilt turret - competition entry comments thread

[paulstreats]

I have made this thread to accompany my entry to the latest competition, I will probably use it to add quick updates before i get the tutorial done, and also allow people to ask questions and give suggestions that may help me.

Here is the initial cad image

[Rebelgium]

I see you've read my pm

I was wondering why you don't use the internals of a BB gun.
With an electrical BBgun you can just close a switch and it shoots, and most probably a lot harder than your system (no offense paul).
It isnt that big either, about 10cm, 10cm, 2cm.

[paulstreats]

Yes i could use the internals of a bb gun, and it would be much more powerful. Unfortunately, I dont want to actually hurt anybody Not to mention, blind somebody by mistake. The idea is to provide a proof of concept that other people could adapt to their means. Paintballing teams could modify it to work with paintball guns to add extra obstacles into their courses etc..

I'm planning on using foam discs as projectiles, This system should be able to fire the discs about 8 metres which is fine since the scope of the sharp ir doesn't reach that far..

[Admin]

Just a word of caution of something to look out for.

A robot with a feeding mechanism is likely to have jamming issues. Ever had a printer that had pages jam? Something like that.

What you will see is multiple disks try to get fed at the same time, or a disk might get stuck in the loader. Foam disks, with weakly defined thickness, will definitely have this problem. Thicker disks are less likely to jam than thinner disks.

Just stuff to consider . . .

[HDL_CinC_Dragon]

So to sum up admins post:

Put an encoder on the thing so when it gets jammed it stops feeding them

[ed1380]

foam disks are for pansies

use razor sharp ninja stars 

[cooldog]

or just make your own from plastic just ask for the recipy you just need paint thinner, styrophome and a mold

[cooldog]

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-%22make%22-plastic/

[paulstreats]

eeerm, I already posted a link to that instructable myself... and you dont actually need a mould, you can just use the plastic like play dough.

Ive already bought the foam discs though, and my firing system needs them to be foam.

Once the design is made, it would be easy enough to put any type of firing device on the top. I might consider altering it one day but i really will only make it with non harmful projectiles at the minute. Sorry